James Sparks

The Climb

Assistant winemaking at Dragonette Cellars (2009–2013) gave James Sparks the basic grammar of the cellar: timing, repetition, and the discipline needed to bring fruit to a finished wine. From there, the move to winemaker at Liquid Farm in Lompoc, California (from 2013) marked a step deeper into decision-making, with each year adding more control, more restraint, and a clearer sense of style. The progression stays legible: a steady rise through Santa Barbara County work, with technique built in place. Today, James Sparks is winemaker of Kings Carey, while that Los Olivos post remains his title. The two positions sit within the same working geography, and that matters in a county where the details of place continue to shape how the cellar is managed.

Today

That Los Olivos post remains his title.

Signature

White Hill Chardonnay, Golden Slope, La Hermana, Four, and Rosé of Mourvedre identify the range of James Sparks’s cellar language. Taken together, James’s wines point to a style that stays grounded in the work: each label carrying its own position inside a broader portfolio, each one reflecting the same accumulated sense of pace and control.

In Their Words “I’m very lucky and sort of just “fell into” the wine business.”

Recognition

“I’m very lucky and sort of just “fell into” the wine business,” James Sparks says of how it started. The line is plain, but the career behind it is more structured than it sounds: Dragonette Cellars (2009–2013), then Liquid Farm in Lompoc, California (from 2013), and now Kings Carey alongside his Los Olivos title. The recognition here is not a trophy count; it is the record of a winemaker whose advancement has been earned through successive roles in the same region.